CHAPTER XX

COMMERCE OF THE PACIFIC

If the earth is primarily for the use of man, then the sea is primarily for the use of commerce; for in no other way can the world of waters be so successfully subordinated to the benefits of the human race, as in bearing the surplus products of one country to another to the ultimate advantage of all. In the midst of a world of intellectual and industrial activity, of startling thought and daring venture, we find preeminent above all other powers and potentialities, Commerce. Wars command our interest; politics and industry, the railway and the mines, have our attention; but all are tributary to King Commerce, whom the tsar serves, and to whom Salisbury and sweet William bend the knee. And the great field for the new commerce of the coming century is the New Pacific, where so lately reigned supreme barbarism and savagery.

As agricultural and industrial pursuits may be said to constitute the body politic of the nation, so commerce is its vital blood, without which there is little life or progress. For the main-springs of human action are found in the wants rather than in the wealth of mankind, and commerce is organized for the supply of those wants, as well as for the accumulation and concentration of wealth.

As a matter of interest to the human race, commerce now assumes the position formerly occupied by discovery and sea adventure. The earlier voyages into and around the Pacific were not so much for purposes of territorial acquisition and legitimate trade, as for gold-gathering with valueless trinkets, or in connection with soul-saving at the point of the sword.

Henceforth commercial supremacy as a nation signifies first of all trade with eastern Asia, Australia, the South Sea isles, and the west coast of North America, that is to say supremacy on the Pacific. No sea power will hereafter pretend to the

first rank unless it is a power on the Pacific, the Pacific being first of oceans, its waters the broadest, its shores the richest, and its islands the most important. And great as has been prosperity and the growth of wealth in the United States during the past century, all will pale into insignificance before present developments. The opening of the Orient to our commerce will be but an incident to the general uprising of the industrial world, in which America and all the countries around the Pacific will play prominent parts.

England leads as a maritime nation, with a steamship capacity in 1898 of 11,576 vessels, aggregating 18,887,132 tons, and a sailing-vessel capacity of 28,885 ships, aggregating 8,893,769 tons, the latter declining in number and capacity as the former increases. Next in steam tonnage is Germany with 1,625,521 tons, while next to England in sail is the United States with 1,285,859 tons, followed by Norway with 1,144,482 tons, and Germany with 535,937 tons. France has 925,682 tons of steam tonnage, the United States 910,800 tons, and Norway 628,493 tons. Great Britain's largest trade is with India; then follow Australia and the United States. Yet England reserves no advantages to herself over others in her Indian trade, while India is at liberty to send her products anywhere.

The greater part of England's colonial empire has been created within the last half century. A hundred years ago her West Indian possessions were highly esteemed, but now, though not diminished, they are of comparatively little value. Thus we see that even tropical lands may depreciate in value, owing perhaps as much to political or economic, as to physical or commercial, causes. The inhabitants of these declining isles have no standing, and every country great or small should guard well its credit. There can never exist true commercial intercourse between nations without confidence and credit, and these can be established only by proper laws and regulations, backed by individual integrity. England loans to her colonists £800,000,000 at a lower rate of interest than she loans elsewhere, because she knows her own people, and knows the money will be paid. England is far from her own country nowhere in the world, and hence she is in a position to dominate the world commercially. She is never far from a market, or from a source of supply; never far from a naval or coaling station of her own.

To most men Alaska seemed a superfluity when the purcnase was made, but we see now a good use for it in the north Pacific, as the Hawaiian and Philippine islands may be useful to us in the middle Pacific. Commercial federation upon some sound basis has been proposed for Great Britain throughout her broad dominions, involving the formation of a fiscal parliament, with power to impose a special duty of two and a half per cent on all imports, which would furnish a fund of £9,000,000 to carry out the purposes of the federation, which would be to promote a cohesive force, and provide markets and regulate transportation.

As the United States becomes the first of commercial nations, New York steps to the front as the chief commercial city of the world, the proud supremacy held for several centuries by London having at last crossed the Atlantic to the metropolis of America. This, as the work of a century; how will matters stand at the end of another century? For 87 years prior to 1876, when the tide of international commerce first turned in favor of the United States, there were but 16 annual balances of trade in our favor, while during the 23 years succeeding that date there have been but three annual balances against us. During the period first named imports averaged $167,000,000 per annum, and exports $141,000,000; during the latter period the imports averaged $667,000,000 a year, and the exports $811,000,000.

At the beginning of the year 1899 the authorized capital of organized trusts or combines amounted to some $3,000,000,000, and the work of organization was going forward more rapidly than ever, even the powers of Europe making moves in that direction for the purpose so far as possible of monopolizing the commerce of the Pacific.

Exports from the United States to Great Britain are increasing while our imports from that quarter are decreasing, the increase of late being notably in grain, metals, fruit, meat, and cotton. The increase in agricultural exports is due to the increase in both quantity and value. The increase in manufactured exports is owing largely to the increased iron products. To this and other branches of manufacture cheapening processes have been introduced. Iron ore and coal have been found in various parts, near boat landings, with such natural and artificial conveniences and proximity to

navigation as to lessen the cost, and thereby increase the demand. These, together with the differentiation in trade, are among the causes which have given to America commercial preeminence. Our commerce has been not inconsiderable for a century past; the war with Spain, however, convinced the world that henceforth the United States would be a great power, not only in international politics but in foreign commerce, successfully contesting for trade the world over, and capable of protecting her rights and interest therein. The foreign commerce of the United States, aggregating for the fiscal year 1897-1898 $1,800,000,000, being of exports $1,200,000,000, and of imports $600,000,000, exceeds that of either France or Germany, and is second only to that of Great Britain. The business prosperity in the United States during and after hostilities with Spain must not be attributed to the war, but rather as coming without regard to it, and because the people were somewhat indifferent as to its cost. It was the same in England. Not for ten years had business and stocks been so active. Most of the manufactories in both England and America were run at their full capacity, particularly those handling iron and steel; one company or a combination of companies was incorporated under the laws of New Jersey with a paid up capital of $200,000,000.

Should our national government ever deem it advisable to have a defined policy in commercial matters, whether with its own distant possessions or with other nations, it will be one such as England has cultivated in her colonies, and with all the world, and not like those of France and Spain, that is to say it will be a free and enlightened policy, giving to all the equal right to buy and sell at their best advantage, even as to-day the New York merchant and the Liverpool merchant stand upon precisely the same footing in sending goods to India or Canada, while the Calcutta and Montreal merchants can buy their goods wherever they like. Such an opportunity, which is and will be ours, is all we require with our growing manufactures to build up a trade around the Pacific such as the world has never before anywhere experienced. A generous, liberal policy in trade, as in everything else, is not only the best but the most profitable. It is not the narrowminded, penurious man or government that thereby becomes the most wealthy and prosperous. Were the same business

policy pursued at New York and Chicago as at Washington, the world's commercial supremacy would never have removed itself to this side of the Atlantic.

To take rank as a first-class commercial power the United States must have more shipping, and stop paying $150,000,000 every year for transportation; and to accomplish this the government should take such steps as are necessary. authorities at Washington are not familiar with the business, or have not the intelligence or energy or money to do this, let them learn methods from the Japanese, and borrow money in China, and man our ships with Malays, only let us have a merchant marine worthy of our position among nations and our pretensions as a sea power. It is surely unnecessary to speak here of the first principles of national development, or to consider how Phoenicia, Italy, Holland, and England each became great through their sea commerce; and now when the United States has every opportunity and every incentive to lead the world in the carrying trade, our maritime men sit down and begin to figure up the difference in seamen's wages, and the amount of money mail contracts and ship subsidizing will draw off from such legitimate purposes as political campaigns, soldiers' pensions, and the like. Americans should blush to have their mails and goods carried in foreign bottoms, even though it cost twice as much to carry them in their own vessels. While squandering hundreds of millions annually on worse than useless things, Americans should be ashamed of the legislation which allows demagogues, bribed by railway magnates, to impede progress by defeating such measures as an interoceanic ship canal. I should be loath to say that I think the Japanese a better people than the Americans, who so lately brought them out of their isolated barbarism; but there are some things which these Asiatics can even now teach their teachers.

The expanding commerce of the United States immediately following the war was manifest in the unusual demand for ships and the increased activity in ship-building. The administration decided not only to retain all vessels purchased during the war, but to confine trade between American and Porto Rican ports to American vessels. It was realized at once that notwithstanding industrial supremacy had passed to some extent from Europe to America, we are far behind